I prepared this deck summarizing some basic startup marketing & PR tips for a 25-minute session with some early stage startups at Upwest Labs. My comments are not included so please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or feedback.

1. Startup Marketing
Marketing & PR tips for early stage Internet startups
By Frederik Hermann
At Upwest Labs - May 28th, 2013

2. Focus
Photo credit: James Walsh / jcbwalsh @ Flickr

3. Set your goals
With limited resources you need to focus your efforts on a few
main goals, include realistic numbers you can achieve

4. Your marketing & PR
should now work towards
achieving these goals
If the efforts are not contributing towards achieving the goals, don’t do it

5. Start with the homework
Photo credit: rokley @ Flickr

6. One-liner
Elevator Pitch
Problem
Solution
Big Idea
Vision
Product
Description
Positioning
Why*
Mission
This will help you tell your story

7. - Identity, branding, positioning ✓
- Build virality into product ✓
- Search engine optimization (SEO) ✓
- Communications (PR, social media, events)
- Email Marketing / Re-targeting
- Partnerships + third-party validation/trust

8. How to get heard

9. 1. Build relationships
2. Provide larger story/context
3. Provide comment
4. Create your own content
5. Be part of the community/conversation
6. Maintain momentum

10. 1. Building relationships
With journalists, bloggers, influencers, analysts...

11. 1. Identify journalists, bloggers, influencers
in media outlets that your potential
customers read/are exposed to
via search, getlittlebird.com, twitaholic.com, etc
2. Build your own list (a Google spreadsheet works fine)
3. Start the conversation (IN ADVANCE)
most journalists actually honor embargoes
4. Maintain the relationship (be a great contact)

12. Always put yourself into the
position of the receiving end
of your message.
Know who you are talking to, introduce yourself,
provide context, be polite, personalize your story
“

13. 2. What’s news?
What do journalists/bloggers usually care about hearing

14. - Are you part of a trend?
- Can you provide insight or comment on
a larger industry story that you fit into?
- Are you disrupting an industry?
- Evolution of something big/important
- Great success, traction, numbers

15. 3. Provide comment
This falls into the category of “thought leadership” and being recognized
as somebody knowledgable and insightful in your industry

16. - Sign up on HARO and provide a comment
to a story relevant to your industry
- Write an interesting/helpful/insightful
guest post and reach out to media
- Professionally comment on articles about
your industry on other blogs/media
- Engage in conversations on social media

17. 4. Create your own content
Commonly referred to as “content marketing”, can be very powerful
but also requires significant resources to create great content

18. 1. Create interesting content on your blog
some of it you can cross-post to Google+, LinkedIn, Quora,
Medium, and share through your own social media channels
2. Presentations (post them to Slideshare)
3. Case studies
4. Videos
5. Whitepapers
6. Infographics

19. 5. Conversations

20. Maintain professional presences
and be part of the conversation:
- Through your blog, Twitter, Facebook,
Google+, LinkedIn, Quora, etc
- Have a maintained profile on LinkedIn,
AngelList, CrunchBase and later Wikipedia
- Always professional, don’t diss your
competition, never get angry

21. 6. Momentum
Plan a series of talking points, feature launches, and initiatives a few
months in advance to keep the conversation going.

23. Make it easy
to talk about you

24. - Good media kit page (different length descriptions, team...)
- Have a good one-pager (example http://swp.it/XMAahp)
- Have a more detailed presentation (on Slideshare)
- Have art assets to share (graphics, screenshots, photos)
- Have a video to integrate
- Share/follow links/buttons (eg. http://swp.it/175h655)

25. Some other tips

26. - Optimize for organic search (SEO)
- Have a decent mobile experience
- Test email marketing (Marketo, Hubspot, Pardot, ...)
- Test online advertising (Facebook, Twitter, AdWords, ...)
- Startup/networking events & conferences
- Thought leadership, speaking engagements

27. Investor pitch

28. Market
Landscape
Traction
Validation
Business
Model
Team Future
Investment
Usage
Details at http://www.slideshare.net/ryanspoon/how-to-create-an-early-stage-pitch-deck

29. Swipp captures, aggregates, and reports
real time sentiment data via consumer
and commercial applications.
www.swipp.com

30. Questions? Connect.
Frederik Hermann
frederik.hermann@gmail.com
twitter.com/netzkobold
www.frederikhermann.com
linkedin.com/in/frederikhermann/
Swipp Inc.
2513 Charleston Rd, # 102
Mountain View, CA 94043
twitter.com/getswipp
www.swipp.com